Top students continue to choose Northeastern

Philomena Mantella, senior vice president for Enrollment Management and Student Life, delivered her annual report on admissions and enrollment as the Faculty Senate convened on Wednesday in the Raytheon Amphitheater. Photo for Brooks Canaday

North­eastern con­tinues to attract the top stu­dents from across the U.S. and around the world due to the university’s emphasis on growing areas of interest such as global expe­ri­en­tial learning and engage­ment, research, and com­bined bachelor’s and master’s degrees, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent for Enroll­ment Man­age­ment and Stu­dent Life Philomena Man­tella told the Fac­ulty Senate on Wednesday.

In order to meet these stu­dents evolving needs, Man­tella said the uni­ver­sity has increas­ingly focused on pro­viding flex­ible aca­d­emic pro­grams and an unprece­dented level of financial-​​aid investment—$204 mil­lion in 2013–14, the largest total in the university’s 115-​​year history.

“We are rising to the chal­lenge of the more demanding stu­dent,” Man­tella told the fac­ulty. “That doesn’t mean there isn’t work to be done. Our work is never going to stop. We are always going to evolve our programs.”

North­eastern received 47,364 appli­ca­tions from prospec­tive stu­dents for incoming class in Fall 2013, which rep­re­sents about a 36 per­cent increase from the number received for 2007. In addi­tion, the mean SAT score for Northeastern’s most newest class (1390) was the highest in the last seven years, while 64 per­cent of those first-​​year stu­dents ranked in the top 10 per­cent of their high school class.

“We have another fan­tastic class,” Stephen W. Director, provost and senior vice pres­i­dent for aca­d­emic affairs, said at the meeting. “I don’t think there is any other uni­ver­sity that has an orga­ni­za­tion like we have, and you can see the results.”

North­eastern is not only accepting top stu­dents, but the stu­dents are staying at the uni­ver­sity after their freshman year. Man­tella said Northeastern’s reten­tion rate for 2013 is 96 per­cent, up from 90 per­cent in 2006. Like­wise, the grad­u­a­tion rate has increase from 64 per­cent in 2000 to 86 per­cent in 2013.

“This is such a spe­cial place,” Man­tella noted. “It is an incred­ibly com­pelling uni­ver­sity and all of what you do with the stu­dents is such a trans­for­ma­tive expe­ri­ence and that is why we, as an insti­tu­tion, have moved so dramatically.”

Looking for­ward, Man­tella said the uni­ver­sity con­tinues to explore new ways to high­light the four-​​year/​two co-​​op option for stu­dents, which com­ple­ments the tra­di­tional path stu­dents take with three co-​​ops in five years. Co-​​op is the sig­na­ture com­po­nent of Northeastern’s expe­ri­en­tial learning model. In the 2012–13 aca­d­emic year, North­eastern had 7,968 co-​​op place­ments with more than 2,900 employers in the United States and around the world.

Man­tella told the Fac­ulty Senate mem­bers that interest in the four-​​year, two-​​co-​​op option is rising. “We need to make this offering more com­pelling and more acces­sible,” she explained. “The objec­tive here is to enhance stu­dent flex­i­bility and open­ness to the pro­grams we have so we can meet that market interest and market demand.”

Con­tin­uing the university’s com­mit­ment to a diverse stu­dent body, Man­tella said the divi­sion of Enroll­ment Man­age­ment and Stu­dent Affairs is also exploring addi­tional ways to engage and attract more stu­dents from African-​​American, Latino, and Native Amer­ican fam­i­lies and backgrounds.

Vice Pres­i­dent of Enroll­ment Man­age­ment Jane Brown noted that last year there was an increase in the number of Latino stu­dent appli­cants
and enrollees, and the uni­ver­sity is boosting efforts to con­nect with prospec­tive African-​​American students.

“We have really inten­si­fied our efforts,” Brown said of increasing African-​​American stu­dent enroll­ment. “We have done very tar­geted out­reach and are looking at the kind of infor­ma­tion we may not be giving them enough of, such as the university’s afford­ability and finan­cial aid opportunities.”

About the Writer

Joe O'Connell is a staff writer for News@Northeastern. A former newspaper reporter and editor, Joe came to Northeastern after working for three different daily newspapers in Massachusetts. Joe is a UNH grad and is finding it difficult to pick which hockey team to cheer for. When he isn't working, Joe can be found watching Boston's sports teams in their athletic endeavors, playing golf badly, and washing hospital scrubs. Follow him on Twitter @joconnell_nu

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